“If you asked me two or three years ago what today would be like, you’d have probably gotten a ‘woe-is-me’ response,” said Renaissance GM John Fleming.

Instead, Fleming said, the hotel is wrapping up its best year yet with occupancy well above 80 percent for the year. In addition, pre-bookings for 2014 are already running 20 percent ahead of the previous year’s numbers.

And the hotel is preparing for the full rollout of a $20 million upgrade to the hotel’s 700 guest rooms, along with a $2 million overhaul of the hotel’s elevators. Renovations are complete on about half the rooms, and all the work should be completed by the middle of February. Accommodations will include refreshed guest rooms, suites and bathrooms and updated amenities.

The work was necessary to help keep pace in an ever-accelerating local hotel scene. The arrival of the Omni spurred on a major period of new investments for hotels around the city.

This fall, Loews Vanderbilt Hotel completed a $17 million renovation, giving guest rooms and interior space a face-lift, along with adding a French-influenced restaurant called Mason’s.

Fleming said the hotel is also preparing to take over operating the event space within the old Nashville Convention Center as part of its agreement with Metro, beginning Jan. 1.

“We’re excited over it. It’s a great opportunity for us, and it gave us the opportunity to take over some space that we really needed,” Fleming said.

He said he was also encouraged to see Metro’s recent decision to begin an overhaul of the old convention center space. For a couple of years, a development team from Texas had floated a proposal for a massive Nashville Medical Trade Center on the site. However, those plans ultimately died because of a lack of leasing activity.

Staying strong

Fleming said it was a challenge to try to project into the future without knowing what was happening next door.

“It was somewhat tough not having a schedule of development, or really even understanding what was happening,” Fleming said. “But we worked close with the city for years on maintaining the strength of this hotel.”

The winning proposal for the most recent redevelopment plan calls for demolition of the existing convention center space. Replacing it would be Nashville’s newest office tower, which could reach as high as 28 floors. At ground level, there would be retail and entertainment spaces, along with a parking structure with space for 1,800 vehicles.

“I still can’t say when this is going happen, but we certainly support it,” Fleming said. “When we come out of this, it will make us a stronger hotel and a good partner in a fantastic development.”